It's Christmas Eve!

I can't believe it's almost here! Santa is coming tonight!

Mark has all of this week off, and so far we've had some wonderful time together. Sunday night we drove through the neighborhoods oowing and awing over all the beautiful lights and decorations. We do this every year, we all get our jammies and Santa hats on, jump in the van, and listen to Christmas music while strolling through the neighborhoods. We never really have a plan on where we're going, that's one of the funnest parts about it. Mark and I get to giggle as we get lost in foreign neighborhoods while Ash begs to find out if we'll ever get home again. Eventually, we find our way home, just in time to brush teeth and climb in our warm beds.

Monday night we attempted to make our annual trip to the big Christmas tree in Austin. We had to make a stop along the way and ended up getting there much too late, and after seeing the enoromous line of cars we decided to go get Amy's ice cream at the Arboretum and hang out in the courtyard with the cement cows. It was actually a little warm that night (60's), which made ice cream a brilliant idea. I wonder if that night will make it in to the memory bank of the kids, I know it's stored in mine. It's not that often that we get to go somewhere with no time constraints, no rushing, no planning, just LIVING. It was wonderful.

So last night (Tuesday the 23rd), we decided that there was no way we could make it to the tree unless we got there before dark and before the crowds. So, we left the house at 4:30, and got there within about 10-15 min. before dark. It was a genius plan, there was almost no line, and we got a decent parking spot, AND we beat the crowds. We had plenty of room to spin beneath the tree and stumble around trying to see straight afterwards. We all had our santa hats on which is probably the reason the News videographer picked us out of the crowd. I was spinning Alex around, he and I were having a blast, I thought I saw a bright light, but didn't realize it was on US until I stopped spining. When I finally stopped stumbling (from the dizziness), I realized that the spotlight from the camera was on Alex and I and ONLY Alex and I, and a group of people were all staring at us! Next thing I know, I'm being interviewed by the reporter. I told her about how this was such a fond childhood memory of mine, and I brought my kids here each year in hopes that they too would have wonderful memories of the big Christmas tree. Of course, leave it to me to talk to much, I went on and tell her about how we left so early to beat the crowd and ended up eating funnel cake for dinner. Now all of Austin and central Texas knows my kids had no veggies for dinner.